Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise I see my reflection in your eyes.

It was her first day in Tommen. The uniform was new, but uncomfortable. The laughter in the corridors seemed louder than they should be. The looks, more intense. The whispers? She knew they were about her. “Johnny’s sister”, “The girl who came from Limerick”, “Mrs.’s daughter. Kavanagh”.

Everyone had an opinion. Everyone already had expectations.

She could barely breathe.

The chest tightened, as if gravity had doubled, and the world began to turn slightly - not as a faint, but as if it were falling inside, slowly. The eyes burned. The hands were shaking. She needed to get out of there.

That’s when he saw it.

Hughie was at the end of the corridor, leaning against a closet, as always - quiet, forgotten in the middle of the crowd, watching more than he spoke. When his eyes hit her, something in his chest gave a silent snap.

She wasn’t just nervous.

She was breaking.

Without thinking, he crossed the corridor, dodging backpacks, ignoring the looks. When he got close, she tried to disguise, but he had already seen it. And I didn’t say anything. He just reached out.

“Come with me.”

She hesitated, surprised. No one had ever talked to her like that. Neither kind nor demanding - only present.

But she went.

He took her out of the main building, bypassing the side to the back of the gym, where almost no one passed at that time. A quiet place, with a stone bench and the distant sound of the wind against the branches.

There, she collapsed in silence. But he didn’t cry. He just breathed. Background. For the first time that day.

Hughie didn’t ask anything.

He sat next to her, in silence. Waiting.

After a while, he said, without looking at her:

“I know what it’s like... when the whole world expects you to be something you’re not.”

She turned her face to him.

“You don’t look like someone who goes through this.”

He gave a sad smile. “Most people don’t seem like it. But that doesn’t mean it’s not breaking inside.”

She was silent. The wind messed up their hair. The weather slowed down.

“Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise,” he said then, with his eyes down. “Being here, far from who we used to be. Far from what they expect.”

And then, he looked at her. Really.

“Because... I see my reflection in your eyes.”

And at that moment, something invisible formed between them. A thin, almost sacred line. As if, in the middle of the chaos, two broken hearts had recognized each other.